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THE 

WHIPPER- WHOPPERS 

STORIES AND DRAWINGS 


BY 

JOSEPHINE GRANT WHEELER 

II 


XTbe lRnlc??erbocl?er press 

NEW YORK 
1918 



Copyright, 1918 

BY 

HENRY O. WHEELER, Jr. 


Tio ^ 

Zhc ‘ftnicfterbocfier press, 'Wew HJorf? 

m -8 1919 

©CI.A5118G1 




DeDicateD 


TO THE MEMORY OF 

THE AUTHOR 



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FOREWORD 


A. E. F., France, 
November 30, 1918. 

To THE Reader: 

There are those rare lives that absorb, live, 
and radiate only the beautiful. And the 
beautiful radiated from the life of one of these, 
the ‘‘very elect," lives on after the earthly 
career is ended, leaving the imprint of its 
beauty on all beings and things that have 
come into contact with that life. 

Such was the life of the writer of these 
stories, Josephine Grant Wheeler. And the 
memory of her life, in all its richness, sweet- 
ness, and beauty, lives on to-day, though to 
mortal vision her life seemed to vanish two 
years before the date of this “Foreword. " 

In 1906 there was published in St, Nicholas, 
“Father's Whaling Voyage," which the pub- 


5 


lishers of St, Nicholas have courteously given 
permission to republish in this little volume. 
For this coiurtesy vve extend to the Century 
Company our hearty appreciation and thanks. 

‘'Father’s Adventure with the Balloon Fish ” 
with the author’s own drawings illustrating it, 
was completed just a little time before the 
final summons came to the author, and it is 
here published for the first time. 

A husband who loved the author of these 
stories beyond measure desires particularly 
to present this little volume to some of those 
children — some young and some of older 
growth — that the author loved. 

Henry O. Wheeler, Jr. 


6 


FATHER’S WHALING VOYAGE 


(As told and illustrated by Father, N, B.: 

Father is a whaler^ not an artist,) 

Father went to New Bedford in 1854. He 
shipped on a vessel which was to start the next 
morning to catch whales. 

The next morning the ship started. There 
was hardly any wind. The captain said the 




ship went too slow, so he tied a rope aroimd 
Father and fastened the other end to the ship, 
and made Father get out in the water and swim 
and pull on the rope. 

Very soon the wind began to blow, and the 
ship sailed faster and faster. Father was 
afraid the ship would run over him and rub the 
skin off his back, so he made a dive, and the 


7 


ship sailed over him without doing him any 
harm. He came to the top of the water be- 



hind the ship. But by this time she was going 
so very fast that when the rope became tight 
it gave such a tremendous and sudden jerk 
that it yanked my Father clear out of the water 
and sent him flying through the air, and he 
came down on the ship in good shape. 

The vessel was then passing Nantucket, and 
very soon entered the Gulf Stream, when a big 



storm came on. For fourteen days the ship 
was at the mercy of the storm, driven to and 
fro by the winds and tossed up and down by 


the waves. They were all afraid except my 
brave Father. 

At ten minutes past one o'clock in the after- 
noon a great thing was seen in the air. What- 
ever it was, it was evidently tired, for it 
alighted on the ship. All the sailors were so 
scared, and the captain also, that they ran 
down below, leaving my Father alone on deck 
with the great bird. The bird noticed that my 
father looked surprised, and my father’s as- 



tonishment was greatly increased upon hear- 
ing the bird speak. The bird said, ‘‘Good 
afternoon; may I trouble you for something 
to eat?” Father at once shouted to the 
sailors to bring up some food for the bird. 
After eating all he wanted, the bird said, 
“Thank you; can I be of any service to 
you?” 

My Father had confidence in the bird, be- 


9 


cause he was so polite, showing he had been 
well brought up, and the bird loved my Father 
because he was not afraid and had fed him ; so 



the bird was told all about the trip, and how 
they were after whales, and how the storm had 
blown them far from their course. 

My Father then asked the bird what his 
name was and where he came from. He said 
he was of the family of Whipper-whoppers 
from the South Pole. He offered, if my Father 
would ride on his back, to go and bring as- 
sistance. 

My Father at once accepted this kind offer, 
and got up on the Whipper-whopper’s back. 

On the morning of the third day they ar- 
rived at the South Pole. Notice was sent for 
all the Whipper-whoppers to meet together. 
They came the next day — ^more than two 


10 


hundred of them. They consulted together 
how they could help my Father. It was de- 



cided to send a relief expedition composed of 
twenty Whipper-whoppers, each one of them 
to be accompanied by a Whang-doodle. The 



Whang-doodles acted as body-servants to 
the Whipper-whoppers, waiting upon them 
and helping them in various ways. 

Each of the Whipper-whoppers carried on 
his back a Whang-doodle. The Whipper- 


II 


whopper which led the procession carried my 
Father. About noon of the second day the 
ship was discovered, and all the Whipper- 
whoppers gathered around it. None of the 
sailors could be seen, and the ship looked as 



if it was deserted. The Whipper-whopper on 
which was my Father swam near the ship and 
stretched out his neck, forming a bridge over 
which my Father passed in safety to the ship. 
He found the sailors hid in empty oil-barrels. 
They came out when they heard my Father's 
voice. 

It seems that the sight of the Whang-doodles 
had scared them. My Father reassured them 


12 


and they followed him up on the deck. Now 
they all had a big talk as to what was the best 
thing to be done next. The Whipper- whoppers 
and some of the Whang-doodles were opposed 
to helping any one on the ship except my 
Father. It was finally settled that they would 



help fill the barrels with oil if my Father could 
have half of it. 


A long rope was then fastened to the bow 
of the ship, and the Whipper- whoppers with 
great force pulled it along at about forty 
miles an hour. 

The morning of the fourth day was bright 
and clear, and large whales were to be seen in 
every direction and in great numbers. The 


13 


Whipper-whoppers, knowing that what my 
Father wanted was whales, commenced at 
once to catch them. It was a very exciting 
scene, — one which my Father has often de- 
scribed to us. 

As his illustration shows, it took two 
Whipper-whoppers to carry each whale; and 
they brought several whales to the ship and 
placed them on the deck. However, the 
ship was soon full of oil, and the Whipper- 
whoppers kindly offered to tow it to New 
York, where the oil was sold for a lot of 
money. 

By this stroke of good fortune my Father 
gained sufficient wealth to enable him to retire 
from the whaling business. 





14 


FATHER’S ADVENTURE WITH 
THE BALLOON FISH 

Those who went with Father on his whaling 
voyage will remember that when the ship was 
well out at sea a storm came up such as no 
sailor had ever seen. All went below, except 
my brave Father, who stayed on deck through 
it all. When the clouds rolled away he was 
surprised to see a great bird flying toward the 
ship. The Whipper- whopper (for such it was) 
alighted on one of the masts and asked Father 
for something to eat. Father fed the Whipper- 
whopper, and to repay him for his kindness, 
the bird fetched a flock of other Whipper- 
whoppers from the South Pole where they all 
lived. They drew the ship to the whaling 
ground and caught whales so fast that Father’s 
fortune was forever made. 

This happened in 1854 and a few years after- 
15 


ward Father thought he would go down to the 
South Pole to see his old Whipper-whopper 
friends. 



There was a weather-vane on top of Father’s 
barn in the shape of a tin horse, which 
could always be seen going lickety-split in 
whatever direction the wind was blowing. 
My Father thought that if any horse knew 
North from South this one would, and one 

i6 



evening he unscrewed the weather-vane and 
straddled the horse. 



■“Get along with you!’' cried my Father, 
which appeared to astonish the horse, but he 
got along at a great pace through the air 
straight toward the South Pole. 

They came in sight of the big icebergs the 
17 


next morning, and Father kept on the lookout 
for Whipper-whoppers, but not so much as a 
feather was to be seen. When their old roost- 
ing place, the South Pole, came into sight, my 
Father was more puzzled to find it quite bare of 
Whipper-whoppers. Fastening his horse to the 
Pole he climbed down but could only find the 
empty nests of icicles strewn about on the snow. 

My Father was beginning to feel rather 
lonesome when he noticed one old Whipper- 
whopper standing on top of an iceberg a 
little distance away. The bird looked very 
sorrowful. My Father soon attracted his 
attention by throwing snow balls at him. 
He hit him squarely in the ribs and the old 
Whipper-whopper set up a loud squawk and 
flopped about, but as soon as he recognized 
Father he came down joyfully to welcome 
him. Something had happened that made 
him feel pretty blue. All the other Whipper- 
whoppers had left him that morning to shift 
for himself and look after the nests. So he 
had settled himself for a good nap and when he 

i8 


woke there was not a Whipper-whopper egg 
to be seen. 



'‘As sure as you're bom," the old bird 
croaked, "those Balloon Fish have carried 
them off!" 

Father found that these Balloon Fish had a 

weakness for Whipper-whopper eggs and that 
19 


instead of swimming in the ocean as all good 
fish are supposed to do, they floated like 
balloons through the sky. 



My Father told the old Whipper-whopper 
to brace up, and he would see what could be 
done. It. did not take long for Father to 
climb on his horse and he was soon out of 


20 



the old bird’s sight, so he settled down again 
to finish his nap. 


When Father had gone straight up a few 
miles, he spied these Balloon Fish just above 



making off with the Whipper-whopper eggs 
as fast as they could go. But of course, they 
could not get ahead of my Father. They 
swooped down ready to swallow him, but the 
sharp arrows of the weather-vane gave each 


one a good prick when it came near. Every- 
time there was a popping sound, and before 
long all the fish were dropping to the earth. 



They went down so slowly that not a Whipper- 
whopper egg was so much as cracked, but as 
for the Balloon Fish, there did not seem to be 
any left to speak of. 

My Father woke the old Whipper-whopper, 

who was so surprised to find the eggs all safe 
22 





again that he lost his balance and slid all the 
way down from the top of the iceberg. 

The rest of the Whipper-whoppers soon 
came back, and my kind Father could not be 
thanked enough. He told them he was well 
repaid if the eggs all hatched out good honest 
Whipper-whoppers. Next day he moimted 
his faithful horse and rode off amid the cheers 
of all the grateful Whipper-whoppers. 



23 


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